Greg Edwards Shakes the Monkey off his Shoulders in 2018 and Returns to Dale Lemonds Victory Lane Twice

Greg Edwards wins for the first and second time of 2018 coming off the heels of a very disappointing Hampton Heat 200. (Justin Kern/TheWeeklyRacer.com)

Hampton, VA – It is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of August and we are just now typing the words “Greg Edwards wins at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway” but here we are. After a very disappointing and early end to his Hampton Heat 200, Greg Edwards came back this weekend with something to prove and prove it he did.

Edwards set the quickest time of the day earlier in the afternoon with a 15.640-second (90.921 MPH) to earn the honor of leading the field to the green. His brother and current points leader Danny Edwards Jr. would line up to his outside. Connor Hall, Mark Wertz, and Brenden Queen rounded out the fastest five qualifiers in that session. It should be noted that the top five in Late Model points randomly drew branches of the military to support on their cars for the annual Commanders Cup.

As usual, when running twin features, the Late Model Stock Car division was the second race to roll off and Greg Edwards was wasting zero time jumping out to the lead. Five laps in, he was two cars ahead of Danny. Ten laps in, he was already lapping the last place car of Paul Debolt. Despite some pretty close racing for a couple of positions from fifth back, race number one went caution free with Edwards lapping up to fifth place.

The eight-car invert was again in effect per the NASCAR rulebook and placed Justin Carroll and Thomas Marks on the front row for the second 75-lap feature. Greg Edwards, who was slated to start in the eighth position, elected to go to the rear of the field. Not so much for points, as we did not have a full field per that same rulebook, Edwards later went on to explain he just felt that was the best move for his car and allow him to save tires.

Carroll held that top spot for the first five circuits around Langley Speedway until Connor Hall was able to peak his nose under and take the position. Once Hall was able to get into the cleaner air it almost looked like he was going to be able to cruise to victory. However, both Mark Wertz and Greg Edwards had other plans for the young driver. By lap forty Mark Wertz had collapsed the lead that Connor Hall built and seemed to be bringing Greg Edwards along with him.

Wertz had to refocus his attention by lap forty-seven because he had a mirror full of race number one winner Greg Edwards. It was just two laps later when Edwards made the pass on Connor Hall to regain the lead and start creating distance between himself and the rest of the pack.

All of Greg’s work almost came to an abrupt halt on lap sixty-three when Brenden Queen, who looked to be battling a very loose racecar for ten to fifteen laps prior, brought out the one and only caution flag during either of the Late Model races when he spun in turn two. Keeping off of other cars, the wall, and out of the grass, Queen was able to drive back to pit road to the attention of his crew and later returned to the race.

The restart proved to be nothing but a thing, as they say, for Greg Edwards who powered back to the lead as they entered turn one. Mark Wertz was able to duck in behind the leader rather quickly but was not able to make anything happen coming off the corner and, to use another very cliché term, “that was all she wrote!” Edwards drove away from Mark Wertz and took the checkered flag by a little over a full second over Mark Wertz. Connor Hall, Craig Eastep, and Paul Debolt rounded out the top five. Points leader Danny Edwards would finish sixth after what looked like mechanical or tire issues plagued him on that late race restart.

Paul Lubno picked up his eighth win of the season in the 40-lap Pepsi Grand Stock division. Chase McAdams returned to Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway and went to victory lane from the pole in the Harris Truck Shop Super Trucks. Christian Keller picked up the first win of his carrer in the Bojangles Enduro night cap.